Kanaka Māoli activists in Hawaii are calling on the U.S. Navy to shut down its jet fuel storage facility on the island of Oahu.
This has been an ongoing call by the ‘Oahu Water Protectors’ following the 2021 leak at the facility, which the group claims has poisoned nearly 100,000 residents.
The group says the Navy is aware of the issue, but almost 400 million litres of jet fuel still needs to be removed from the deteriorating underground storage tanks.
“There are affected families who were poisoned during that time, who are still going through surgeries,” Dani Espiritu, a spokesperson for the Oahu Water Protectors, told Te Ao Tapatahi from Hawaii.
“They were bathing their kids in it, they were drinking, cooking with water that essentially had jet fuel and other carcinogenic chemicals that the military is still refusing to disclose. And so, folks are experiencing ongoing symptoms.”
Espiritu says their entire island is at risk.
“The other issues for us – on our island specifically, the way our island is built – its porous rock mixed with water and so our aquifers are really contaminated.”
“As that fuel plume spreads, we’ll have fuel coming out potentially through springs, going into our streams affecting plants, farms.
“We’re talking about the contamination of our entire island at this point,” says Espiritu.
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